


secret admirer (5+1 fic)

by perhapssoon



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Jay is a confused boi, M/M, This is rather interesting, kai forgets everything, nya really doesn’t care
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 12:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15485769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perhapssoon/pseuds/perhapssoon
Summary: Jay expected a lot but he had never expected this. (College AU)Or5 times Jay has a secret admirer and one time he didn’t.





	secret admirer (5+1 fic)

**Author's Note:**

> This basically is one of those 5+1 fics, but once we reach the +1, it will go in reverse.

1\. Zane

First is the flowers.  Jay opens his dorm room door to find at least half a dozen bouquets of roses (they're blue, which is both intriguing and touching) and when he brings them inside, Zane, his roommate, raises a single brow in disbelief. 

"Wow Jay, it seems that you've got a secret admirer."

"Shut up," he says, the tips of his ears turning pink. "Maybe they'll reveal themselves in the card."

Zane just gives him a half smile. "Most likely not.  Not everyone wants to be known as the person who goes overboard with flowers to their crush."

Jay ignores him and slits open the envelope, heart beating frantically.  It could be Nya, that girl he's been crushing on for weeks now, or her brother, who he's been crushing on for at least a year, or-- he needs to slow down. He doesn't even know who sent the flowers yet.

He opens the card with shaky hands, fingers fumbling for the opening.  No one's ever given him something like this in years, the last time being in fourth grade with a girl he didn't even like.  The card is simply signed with XO and a heart but Jay feels the warmth from it down to his core.

"Your mystery person write their name?" Zane asks, coming over and carefully picking his way over the flowers as to not crush them.

"No." Jay figures that it wouldn't be bad to show Zane so he turns the card so his roommate can see.

Zane's eyes flick over the short message and nods.  "Are you going to try to figure them out?"

"Nah, I kinda want to see where this is going."

Zane gives Jay one of those rare smiles.  "Of course you do."

"No, really, I do!" Jay protests and Zane laughs.

"You caught me. I think you just want the attention of having a secret admirer days before holiday break."

Jay huffs, looking at the floor. "Fine.  I do want the attention. That too much?"

"It'll be good for your Tinder account," Zane suggests and Jay bats at his arm in annoyance.

"Forget I said anything."

"But seriously," Zane glances around at the blue mass on the floor.  "Where are you going to put all of this?"

Jay snickers. "I'll manage."

 

2\. Nya

The chocolates come a day later, with a card with the same note on it.

"This feels like some Valentine's Day prank," Jay tells Nya, who looks at him in concern.

"What have people done to you to make this feel like a prank?"

"Well, let's just say I've seen some really elaborate ones, but that's besides the point.  Do you think it's a prank?" Jay half wonders if Nya was the one who sent him all this stuff but judging by the look on her face, he knew that she didn't.

It kinda hurt, but whatever.

"No, Jay, but I would tell you outright if it was."

"Yeah, sure, and pretending to be that really cool community hero and hiding your identity is outright?"

Nya's eyes narrow slightly.  "That's different."

"Oh, oh yeah, totally." If he wasn't so scared of her all the time, he would argue.  In his most confident state, he actually put up a good debate but today isn't one of those times. 

He lets it go.

“But anyway,” Nya continues. “Zane brought some weird mechanical parts up to my room. I’m not sure if they’re yours?”

Jay shakes his head. “All of my stuff is back at the workshop. Not here.”

“Okay, just checking.”

Jay wonders if Nya was the one who sent them and how things would change between them if she did. He didn’t really want their specific type of friend closeness to end. Maybe it’d be better off if she didn’t send them. 

  


 3. Kai

The next time he receives a ton of flowers along with a bucketful of glitter, Kai's the one who finds him.

"Woah, Jay, who sent you all that?"

"Did you?"

Kai shakes his head.  "Nah man, you're my friend.  Friends won't prank each other like that."

Jay takes it to mean Kai doesn't like him the way he's been hoping.  Which narrows it down quite a bit, but he isn't too happy about it either.

Kai sits down next to him and Jay's heartbeat speeds up at the close proximity.  He picks up the bucket of glitter, takes a look inside, and grins.

"Who sent you the glitter? Same person?"

"I think so," Jay replies, showing Kai the multiple, identical cards he's been getting for the past couple days.

Kai nods slowly. "It's not Valentine's Day, is it?"

He looks a bit panicky for a second and Jay considers saying yes to see him freak out, but embarrassing Kai in front of his own girlfriend wouldn't be fair. "No.  And don't worry, I would've told you. You would forget Skylor's birthday as well, if you didn't have me."

Kai scowls. "Hey, it was one time, Jay.  One time only."

Jay smirks. "I'm still not going to let you live it down."

Kai groans.  "Nya won't either.  Keeps reminding me every time some holiday comes up where we go shopping and are about to leave the mall. 'Kai, did you forget to buy flowers?' 'Kai, don't forget about the gifts!' 'You forgot her birthday, did you forget this too?' and she always makes me think I forgot something but I didn't."

Jay laughs. “Sounds like her.”

Kai humphs but he’s grinning. He reaches over and ruffles Jay’s hair. “You keep me updated on the holidays, yeah? Skylor wants to meet me in ten minutes.”

“Oh, that you remember but not her birthday?”

Kai rolls his eyes and leaves. 

Yeah, he doesn’t want anything to change between them either. 

 

4\. Lloyd

Lloyd catches Jay sneaking out of his dorm room holding a large box at two in the morning. 

“Hi Jay. What’re you doing?” he asks, coming up to him and Jay freezes, mind struggling to come up with a plausible answer. He decides on telling the truth. 

“I have a secret admirer.”

Lloyd chuckles. “Yeah, I heard from Zane. You figure it out yet?”

“No, but I think it might be that one girl in history who keeps looking at me weird.”

Lloyd makes a face. “Yeah, well, did you actually take the stuff they sent you?”

“What else was I supposed to do with it?” Jay asks, annoyed. “Throw it away? I’m not one to give up on chocolates, you know.”

“I guess that’s a valid point,” Lloyd says doubtfully. “But you have to be careful and not hurt them if you turn them down, you know that.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jay hefts the box further up to balance it on his hip. “Y’know, sometimes I feel like I don’t want to have a secret admirer knowing that this isn’t going to last forever. Winter break is coming up and I don’t want to bust their feelings before something that’s supposed to be happy—“

“You’ll be fine, Jay,” Lloyd says, clapping him on the back. “Just be careful.”

“Yeah, you said that already,” Jay grumbles and walks away. 

But since everyone in his friend group is already a suspect, he can’t help wondering: did Lloyd send that stuff?

No, he couldn't have.  Lloyd, as far as Jay is concerned, has a love life that's really obscure and vague, but it's there all the same.  He's pretty sure he's seen Lloyd with a significant other some time ago, though he can't remember if they are still together...

His confusion makes him stop focusing on that.  He still needs to figure who his admirer is before winter break.

  


5\. Misako

"I heard you have a secret admirer," is the first thing she says when Jay arrives in the classroom.

"Seriously? How fast does information go around this place?"

Misako gives him a smile that makes him shiver with unfamiliarity. "Very fast, believe me. And you also came in wearing a new scarf."

Jay glances down and realizes that he is indeed wearing the scarf he had received that morning.

"Oh. So, since you know...do you know who it is?"

Misako laughs.  "If I knew, I would have to honor their secret, so no."

"But-but you could be lying."

"I think the person intended either for you to figure it out on your own or they'll confront you before break. Just a hint."

"You sure about that?" Jay could see the twinkle in her eyes, coming to his own conclusion. "You _do_ know who it is!"

Misako's eyes crinkle into another smile. "Perhaps."

"Does she or he have a class in this classroom?" Jay looks around at the whiteboard, eyes darting over the names printed there for missing assignments and tests.  He has memorized all of his classmates of course, but there was a possibility that his secret admirer had a class here as well.

Misako turns to shuffle through a pile of tests and sorts them by name. "Maybe." She turns back around and shoos Jay to his seat. "And I cannot tell you any other information."

Jay huffs and takes his seat, flipping his notebook to the correct page to take notes when something soars across the room and lands on it. It only takes a second to instinctively hide it under his desk so Misako doesn't see.  

It appears to be a paper airplane, rather elaborately folded, despite the many unnecessary creases.  Gently unfolding it, he can make out three sentences, crudely written in the center of the paper.

_3pm. Behind the tennis courts. See you there._

 

+1 Cole

Jay picks his way across the tennis courts with a grimace, avoiding the large amounts of trash cluttering the area. It was no wonder their tennis team complained so much about their playing space. 

The back fence was no problem to scale, and only when he hit the ground on the other side did he realize that he could've just used a path to go around.  Oh well, he's already on this side and when he straightens, a voice rings out behind him.

"Hey."

Jay turns, eyes wide.  Cole stands in front of him, grinning slightly and looking a bit embarrassed. "How's it going?"

"I-what? _You're_ my secret admirer?" Jay backs up until he can feel the fence digging between his shoulder blades. The sudden reveal leaves his mind blank.  He doesn't know what to do.

Cole looks nervous that Jay is edging away from him. "Yeah.  Sorry for not telling you sooner. And I get if you don't return the feelings but--"

Jay didn't let him finish.  All the emotion and confusion from the last few days finally poured out of him. "Are you kidding me? All this time I thought it was Nya messing with me, or Kai being really good at acting, or maybe Zane, but that doesn't make any sense because he's dating Pixal, and it couldn't be Lloyd because that's really really strange, and out of all of my best friends, it _has_ to be the one who I thought was too cool to notice me and even acknowledge that I had a crush on him and--" he pauses to catch his breath. "of course I return the feelings, idiot! I've had a crush on you for three years, so long that I even forgot I had a crush on you and went around thinking blushing and racing heart rates meant friendship!"

Cole stays silent for so long, Jay wonders if he finally went over the edge. He's quick to backtrack. "I-I mean, I _totally_ didn't like you that much, and maybe I kinda--"

He doesn't get the chance to finish as Cole's mouth smashes against his. It's rough and surprisingly unassuming and he finds himself wrapping his arms around Cole's neck, threading his fingers through the taller boy's hair.  The warmth threatens to consume him.

Out of all the possibilities, this definitely is the best option.

 

-5 Misako

When Jay walks into class the next day wearing Cole's jacket, Misako gives him a wink and on his graded test, he gets a B but the note next to it reads, _You get an A for figuring it out._

He knows he shouldn't get the credit, as Cole was the one to get them to meet behind the tennis courts, but he doesn't say anything to her.

 

-4 Lloyd

"No gift today?" Lloyd asks as Jay comes out of his dorm room for the two of them to make a quick trip to the supplies store.

"Nah, I found my admirer," Jay says, and Lloyd grins at him.

"Was it Cole?"

"What? How did you know?"

Lloyd shrugs. "Everyone sees the way you two look at each other.  The funny thing is you always miss each other by milliseconds."

Jay blinks.  He never knew he was that obvious.

Recovering quickly, he says"And as a matter of fact, Lloyd, I did get a gift today."

Lloyd looks surprised.  "Really? What is it?"

"It's Cole."

 

-3 Kai

It takes longer for Kai to realize that Jay is dating Cole, but when he hears about it, he takes the time to give Jay a rather annoying smirk.

"Yeah, you two had it coming.  I thought it would either be him or Nya but Nya said it wasn't her."

"How'd you know if she wasn't lying?"

Kai gives him a look.

"Hey, I'm saying that you could've been wrong."

Kai rolls his eyes.  "But I _wasn't_."

 

-2 Nya

"Heard you and Cole hooked up. It's about time."

"Seriously Nya? You too?"

"C'mon," Nya leans back in her seat with a casual gracefulness only she would be able to accomplish. "You two give each others goo-goo eyes literally every time you're in the room together."

Jay sighs and leans back as well, his motions far more clumsy that Nya's.  "Well, I mean, we're dating now so it doesn't make a difference."

 

-1 Zane

"Congratulations, Jay," Zane says.

"Uh, for what?"

"For finally figuring it out."

"You knew as well?" Jay had a feeling Zane also had noticed everything his other friends did -- he never missed anything.

"Not immediately," Zane admits. "I scanned the handwriting and realized it to be Cole's.  Looking through my data dump, I picked out--"

"Okay, okay, I get it," Jay groans, acting exasperated, but honestly, he's glad he ended up with Cole.  

Even the constant reminders from the rest of his friends can't bring him down from this endless high of love, no matter how cliche it might be.

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a friend from Discord for our secret gift exchange


End file.
